We live in an era where public transportation security measures are a must. Over the past two decades the increase of terrorism on American soil or directed at American targets has mandated a broad-based response to ensure public transportation security from the federal, state, and local levels. Further, new technologies have enabled the development of newer, more sophisticated methods for implementing security measures. With respect to public transportation security measures, this analysis will discuss some of the security measures, or lack of them, which affect bus, subway, rail and airline transportation. From subway to airline accidents and terrorist attacks, there is a heightened public awareness of public transportation safety. As we shall see, while some transportation sectors have admirably met the public’s demand for higher levels of transportation security, others are still in the process of playing catch-up. A conclusion will address the likely future of public transportation security.
Public bus or transit security was not much of an issue in the 1960s and 1970s because many transit companies provided their own policing agents on their busses. However, over the past two decades, particularly in high crime neighborhoods in urban cities, riding the bus has become a security risk especially in the minds of the public, “Transit riders run twice the risk of being victim as non-transit riders in the same city.…only 16.1% of respondents to a nationwide survey considered the bus to be the safest mode of transportation” (Loukaitou-Sideris 2).
Public transit is often bypassed by individuals because of a concern for their personal safety. This perception is greatest, and public transit most not used, in larger urban areas where crime rates are known to be high. For example, transit crime has an enormous rate of incidence in comparison to the national average for transit crime, even though many transit crimes th...